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Overview

Gone to Texas engagingly tells the story of the Lone Star State, from the arrival of humans in the Panhandle more than 10,000 years ago to the opening of the twenty-first century. Focusing on the state's successive waves of immigrants, the book offers an inclusive view of the vast array of Texans who, often in conflict with each other and always in a struggle with the land, created a history and an idea of Texas.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"The best, most comprehensive account of the Lone Star saga that I know of; the place to start if you prefer Texas history to Texas mythology."—-Fritz Lanham, Houston Chronicle

"The new standard history of America's most unusual state. It is a balanced account, beautifully written, with verve and wit."—William H. Goetzmann, The University of Texas at Austin

"One of the best crafted, thoroughly researched, and masterfully presented histories in one volume ever written about this state. It is nothing short of an historical tour de force."—Light T. Cummins, Austin College

Publishers Weekly

Anyone who believes that the history of Texas is written only in tub-thumping braggadocio will quickly be set straight by this superb history of the Lone Star State. A leading historian of Texas (Sam Houston and the American Southwest, etc.), Campbell writes with authority and clarity about one of the nation's most distinctive components. His thoroughly contemporary approach sets early Texas history firmly within the checkered development of Mexico and keeps African-Americans, both slave and free, as well as native tribes at the center of his story. His coverage of such matters as the Texas Revolution, the state's 10 years as an independent republic and the cattle business are models of their kind, and surely no one has written so well while so briefly about how Texas became Southern. Because much of the book is spent on the state's lively political history, however, there may not be enough about Texas society (and certainly not about the state's complex, mixed culture) to satisfy some readers. What's best about the book and what will make it attractive beyond Texas borders is Campbell's healthy skepticism about claims that Texas is unique among the states. He's also critical where criticism is clearly warranted, such as when arraigning "the general lack of concern for civil rights that characterized the state's politics after the 1870s." Campbell shows an unusual ability to judge people in 21st-century terms without losing sight of the long-ago context of their acts. A dividend for readers is the book's unusually good maps and diagrams. (Aug.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Campbell (history, Univ. of North Texas, Sam Houston and the American Southwest) provides a broad-brushed survey of the history of Texas, dating from 12,000 years ago to the present day. Balancing traditional impressions with revisionist tendencies, Campbell's story begins with Pleistocene Epoch migrants to Texas and continues with chapters on the 16th-century European exploration of Texas, Spanish rule, the "age of revolution," Mexican control, the legendary Texas Revolution, and the independent Republic of Texas, then proceeds through to the Civil War, the Great Depression, World War II, and the rise of modern Texas. Campbell conveys stories of colorful Texans and key events. Woven throughout the text are themes of the Texas Revolution as more a clash of cultures than a deliberate plan by the United States to take over the territory, the predominant identification of Texans as Southerners instead of Westerners, and the nonpareil Texas exaggeration of individualism and personal liberty. With the soon-to-be-released film Alamo, Campbell's superb, engrossing history is a timely arrival that nicely updates T.R. Fehrenbach's magisterial Lone Star. Highly recommended for academic and public libraries and any college-level Texas history course.-Dale Farris, Groves, TX Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Sweeping history of the outsized state and its bellwether politics. Texas's past and present can fairly be characterized as a series of land grabs: the Caddo and Comanches stole it from the Karankawa and other native peoples, the Spanish from the Caddo and Comanches, the Americans from the Spanish. A sovereign nation following the Americano rebellion against Santa Anna before being annexed to the US, Texas has long nursed an independent streak; so vast and remote are portions of the state that news of the Union victory in the Civil War did not reach slaves until well after hostilities had ended, and this geographical distance has furthered ideas of separateness. For all that, writes Campbell (History/Univ. of North Texas), Texas today has "an economy more like that of the United States as a whole than ever in its history," as well as a diverse society-and an ever-changing one at that, such that Hispanics will regain demographic majority status within the next 20 to 40 years. Texans, Campbell writes, have long been politically conservative, though not a great deal more today than most Americans; the same struggles went on there as in other states on poll taxes, prohibition, and desegregation, fought by the same progressive and right-wing elements. Its leaders have been similarly conservative, from the aristocratic Stephen Austin to the faux-bumpkin Pappy O'Daniel (caricatured-and to judge by Campbell's account, not too wide of the mark-in the recent film O Brother, Where Art Thou?) and on to George Bush, who as governor did for the state what he has lately been doing as president for the US with tort reform, relaxed regulations on handguns, and the dismantling of various portions of thewelfare state, failing "only in his proposals for tax reform, but few Texans regarded that as a pressing issue anyhow." A well-written survey, rather less entertaining than T.R. Fehrenbach's now-standard Lone Star, but meatier, too.

Meet the Author

Table of Contents

Maps and Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments

1. The First Texans
2. Exploration and Adventure, 1519-1689
3. Spanish Texas, 1690-1779
4. Spanish Texas in the Age of Revolutions, 1779-1821
5. Mexican Texas, 1821-1835
6. The Texas Revolution, 1835-1836
7. The Republic of Texas, 1836-1846
8. Frontier Texas, 1846-1861
9. Empire State of the South, 1846-1861
10. The Civil War, 1861-1865
11. Reconstruction, 1865-1876
12. The Old West, 1877-1900
13. The New South and the Populist Revolt, 1877-1900
14. The Progressive Era, 1901-1920
15. The "Prosperity Decade," 1921-1929
16. The Great Depression and World War II, 1929-1945
17. The Rise of Modern Texas, 1945-1971
18. Modern Texas, 1971-2000
19. Texas in the New Millennium, 2001-2011
20. The Texas Mystique in the Twenty-First Century

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